


Memories

by tenrosemollcroft



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25552894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenrosemollcroft/pseuds/tenrosemollcroft
Summary: If Amy Pond noticed the Doctor during his rewind in the Big Bang, why couldn’t someone else? Someone very important…
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Kudos: 100





	Memories

“It’s funny. I thought, if you could hear me, I could hang on somehow. Silly me. Silly old Doctor. When you wake up, you’ll have a mum and dad, and you won’t even remember me. Well, you’ll remember me a little. I’ll be a story in your head. But that’s okay. We’re all stories in the end. Because it was, you know. It was the best.” He trailed off, lost in thought.

“I think I’ll skip the rest of the rewind. I hate repeats. Live well. Love Rory. Bye bye, Pond.” He closed his eyes, swallowing a lump in his throat, and stepped through the crack. 

Amelia woke up, looking around her bedroom illuminated by the stars.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was opening his eyes. “Oh, okay. I escaped then. I love it when I do that!” He muttered, glancing around in fear, ready to see the crack out the corner of his eye. But there was nothing there. What did shock him, however, was the coral walls curving up around his head, the sound of a song from the 40’s filling the room, laughter bouncing through the TARDIS. It was definitely his TARDIS – he could feel the familiar pull of her in his mind. 

The dying notes of Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood” faded off, as did a set of quick steps. “What we going to do then, old girl, while the Doctor finds Jack a room?” A voice, a London accent, cut through his thoughts and he froze. He remembered this day. Nancy and Jamie, everyone surviving just that once, spinning Rose Tyler around the console room. 

Amy had heard him, he had been sure of it; in the TARDIS, in the street, in the Byzantium. Maybe she would too? He was almost certain it wasn’t just a hallucination dreamt up by a dying mind – she was even more beautiful than he’d ever been able to remember. And so young. The last time he had seen her, the proper time, she was still beautiful – she always was – but she had been toughened by everything in Pete’s World. They’d barely even had time to talk, before he was shot and they were forced to Davros and she was back on Bad Wolf Bay. 

“Rose?” he tried tentatively. She didn’t respond, still swaying to music that had stopped. “Rose Tyler,” he repeated, pulling himself up on the railings. 

She spun around. “Who the hell are you?! DOC -”

He rushed forward, clapping a hand to her mouth. “Don’t call for him. Look, I’m not going to hurt you.” He backed off a bit. “Rose - ”

“How do you know my name?” she demanded.

“For god sake, Rose. It’s me. Look at me.”

She approached slowly, peering, and he fought back a smile. Clever girl – even through her shock, she still subconsciously recognised him. 

“It’s me, Rose. The Doctor.”

“Prove it,” she whispered.

He stepped close again, a memory from long ago awakening. “Very first word I ever said to you. In that cellar, surrounded by shop window dummies, ooh, not actually so long ago, I took your hand and I said one word. Just one word, I said. Run!”

“Doctor?” she asked quietly, unsure.

“Hello,” he grinned, rocking back on his heels.

She leant against the console, eyes as large as saucers. “How?”

“Oh, timey wimey. Your Doctor, big ears, he’s still up there with Jack. And, I’m different because… well, you’ll understand soon enough.”

“Then how are you here? Now?”

“Ah. Well, there was an accident. I should be dead.”

She looked alarmed. “How are you alive then? This is confusing,”

“I know it is, and I’m sorry. But I’m alive for such a simple reason. You heard me, Rose Tyler. So I hung on. Ah, well, and I have magnificent friends. I suppose Amy retained such a strong memory of me that she somehow managed to bring me back – just like she did for her parents.”

A shadow crossed Rose’s face briefly and he didn’t miss it. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,”

“Rose?”

“Amy?” she enquired quietly.

“Amy Pond, yes. She travels with me.” He explained.

“You moved on?” her voice broke a bit.

“Oh, Rose.” It was still so new, for her. She hadn’t seen how he had treated Sarah Jane, Reinette, or Mickey. But he had seen how it had hurt her, heard her fears being voiced about being forgotten. He cupped her cheek and waited to see whether she would pull away. She didn’t. “Of course I didn’t move on. But you’re not there anymore, oh it’s been so long. I didn’t find them to forget you – I found them to help me.”

“How long, Doctor?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. And I can tell it does to you, as well. How long?” She shrugged him off and took his face between her hands, levelling their gaze.

“I was 903 when I last saw you. I’m 908 now. But, you know me, age doesn’t matter, it’s what we do in those years.”

“But you’re 900 now. We’ve got three years?”

“Less, I’m afraid. There was a… gap.”

“Am I dead?”

“Now? No, obviously not,” he chucked her under the chin gently. “In my time? No. But I didn’t want to lose you; I did everything I could to get you back. Never liked the word impossible, me.”

“You probably shouldn’t be telling me this. Unless, will I forgot it all?”

“The time streams are out of sync,” he said sadly. “You can’t retain it, no. It’ll be like a dream.”

“A nice dream,” she said, lip quivering.

“Oh yes. A very nice dream. I remember coming back to the console, you kissing me on the cheek and going to bed.”

“And then?”

“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you; it won’t make sense when you make up. And then, we do have time left together. Oh, Rose Tyler. Nowhere near as long as I would have liked, but we have a great time.”

“Any regrets?”

“Plenty. Nothing more than that loose lever, though. Just, if this will be the one thing you’ll remember, tell him, tell me, how much you love him. I know it’s hard, but you’ll regret it more than you can say. Maybe not yet; he’s still broken. But you helped more than I can ever say.”

She blushed, ducking her head a bit. “And what’ll happen to you? You’ll go back to Amy?”

“Yes, and her husband.”

She visibly relaxed at that. “How are you gonna do that?”

“With this,” he had kept River’s vortex manipulator strapped to his wrist. “It’ll take me back to my TARDIS, my timeline.” 

“Jack has one like that,” she fingered the leather strap and he smiled, memories rising from long ago. 

“How do you know it’s not the same one?”

“I miss you.” She said suddenly, continuing quickly before he could ask. “I know, I know you’re just down the corridor. But knowing now, even for only a little bit, that we lose each other, I want to say it now, in case I can’t later. It makes me sad that you go back to being all alone again.”

They sat on the steps and talked for a little longer. He knew exactly how long he had until his previous incarnation returned. Eventually, with six minutes to spare and a heavy sigh, he started to coordinate the vortex manipulator. She just looked on sadly. 

He paused before hitting it to send him off. “Rose, you won’t remember this, like I said. So, if it’s my last chance to say it. Rose Tyler, I love you.”

She welled up and leant close to hide it, kissing his cheek. “I love you. Always have.”

“Live well. Bye bye, Rose Tyler.”

And, in a flash of light, he was gone. Rose was left sitting on the steps grating, hastily swiping at her eyes when she heard footsteps.

“You okay?” the northern timbre came from behind.

“Doctor!” she squeaked, practically throwing herself into his arms.

“Hey, hey, you sure you’re okay?”

She pulled away, remembering he wouldn’t have a clue why she was so happy to see him. Her own memory was fading already. “Oh, just fine. Happy as can be. After all, everyone lived.”

He grinned. “That they did.”

“I’m tired, going to go down. Night, Doctor,” She leant up to kiss his cheek, smiling to herself as the tip of his ears turned pink. 

That night, she only vaguely noticed as he tiptoed into her room and kissed the top of her hair with a whisper of a promise.

Meanwhile, the Doctor, the older Doctor, was back inside his own TARDIS. He had been right, the powers of Amelia Pond alone had saved him. And he had the perfect idea of when to come back into her life. Except, when he reached the wardrobe room, he went down a corridor on the left, and picked up a black tuxedo jacket that hadn’t been used for a very long time, and only at a dinner party; the scent of rosey perfume still lingering.


End file.
